Skeletal Milan dispatches local champions Bandung
JAKARTA (JP): Intercity amateur champions Persib Bandung were given a rare chance on Saturday to test their mettle against one of the strongest club sides in the world. Hopefully they came away with a new understanding of why the word "amateur" is in their title.
Faced with Italian and European Champions AC Milan, Persib did not rise to the occasion. With the exception of national midfielder Yudi Guntara, who hurled his Diego Maradona-like body into the action as much as possible, Persib played with sheepishness unbecoming in a champion.
The Italians came in still smarting from their recent 2-1 loss to World Cup-bound Colombia and soothed their wounded pride by finding the back of the Persib net eight times while blanking them at the other end of the field.
Milan, currently on a world tour to cover the costs of those expensive off-season transfers, cannot be held responsible for what they did to Persib yesterday; it remains to be seen though, if criminal charges can be brought against promoter Eddy Sofyan for sending the Persib babes to wolves of the professional wood.
A professional opponent from the Indonesian Liga, perhaps, would have staved off the abject humiliation visited upon the Bandung blues.
The gulf between the two sides was never more clear than during one of Persib's token appearances in the Milan box, when the towering Marcel Desailly inserted himself between the diminutive Sutiono and the speculative through ball he was trying to run down. It went straight to the heart, like watching Charles Atlas kick sand in the face of a 98 pound weakling.
The US$25,000 on offer to Persib Bandung for a victory over the Milanese tourists might as well have been a million, because they had as much chance of collecting the bounty as they did of winning the now defunct state lottery.
Flat defense
While a flat Persib defense kept the score-sheet clean going into the 20th minute of the match, by the 21st the tourists had built a two goal lead through the offices of explosive Montenegrin striker Dejan Savicevic.
Both goals resulted from a situation Persib knew they would have to avoid going into the match; a Milan player with the ball and only one Persib marker to impede his progress. Savicevic was perhaps the player for whom this approach was most important.
On the first strike, he took a pass at the top of the box, nudged the ball to his right and was off to the races with a nifty no-look finish to the far post.
On the second, barely 30 seconds later, he brought the ball down the right wing, ran out of space at the end of the pitch and threw the ball towards the center of the Persib goal. He found a Persib shin, which helpfully directed the ball past the line.
Their third goal three minutes later also came from the right flank, which was the most productive spot all day for the visitors. Cristian Panucci found the head of Milan glamor boy Gianluigi Lentini in another move that ignored, more than defeated, the Persib defense.
And so it went. The ease with which Milan scored gave their goals a pedestrian caste-- the one moment of real beauty coming in the 79th minute, when Nando De Napoli went home with a perfectly timed left-footed volley of a cross, also from the right flank.
This was not a Milan that we will be seeing much of in the near future. The club has been stripped down to the bare bones by former boss Arrigo Sacchi, who has taken six starters from the side which crushed Barcelona for the European title to fill his Italian World Cup squad.
Coach Fabio Capello, perhaps recognizing that his boys will not have as much ease in upcoming games with the Chinese and Australian national teams, let his players loose to the goal, not the usual approach in Milan's boring 1-0 Serie A victories last season.
What made this possible was Persib coach Ateng Wahyudi's decision, either courageous or foolhardy, to go for goal a bit himself. His only real hope would have been to pack his players into the defensive half of the field, choking the Italian attack by depriving it of oxygen with sheer numbers.
This was the tactic employed by the all-stars from Liga when they played Sampdoria last month, and it brought them a better result. While the game was not as close as the 3-2 score in favor of Sampdoria would suggest, they managed to keep it respectable by adjusting their game to slow down their dangerous opponents. (djm)
Teams
Persib: Aries Rinaldi, Dede Iskandar, Nandang Kurnaedi, Roby Darwis, Roy Darwis, Yadi Mulyadi, Asep Kustiana/Asep Sumantri/Mulyana, Sutiono, Yusuf Bachtiar, Yudi Guntara, Kekey Zakaria/Asep Roni.
AC Milan: Mario Lelpo/Sebastiano Rossi, Christian Panucci/Stetano Torrisi, Alessandro Orlando/Roberto Orenzini, Gianluca Sordo/Fernando Denapoli, Fillipo Galli, Sjcegno Nava, Gianluigi Lentini, Marcel Desailly/Angelo Carbone, Giovanni Stroppa/Stefano Desideri, Dejan Savicevic/Christian Lantignotti, Paolo Baldeiri.